While attending a NASA Mega Principal Investigator conference in Cleveland, Ohio, I had a brief conversation with a key person in leadership about educating Minority Serving Institutions, specifically Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) on government contracts. One of the statements that she made that sticks with me is, “It’s like turning the Titanic.”
If you do not know what the Titanic is then you must have been under a rock when the movie came out in 1997 and starred the young Leonardo Di Caprio, propelling his career to super stardom. It grossed $1 billion dollars and stayed at the top of the box office for 12 years. Anyway, this blog is not about the Titanic. Rather, it is about the comparison of the most famous ship, which was touted as being “unsinkable,” to HBCUs.
Although, I have been writing over the past year about how HBCUs need to have “a seat at the table” ( this was the title of one of my first blogs as it relates to government contracts) , I still believe as graduate of a HBCU that our universities are “unsinkable.” However these universities need to learn how to maneuver around the iceberg.
As you know, the Titanic hit a giant iceberg that caused the ship to sink and take roughly 1,500 lives. The proverbial iceberg I am referring to maneuvering around represents the rules, regulations and compliances central to government contracts.
An interesting discovery was made about the crash of the Titanic in an article published in 2010. It discussed the steering blunder of the Titanic. This article argued that the helmsman spotted the iceberg way in advance and could have prevented the crash from happening. But, the article states, the helmsman panicked and steered the wrong way.
It has been my experience as a consultant for HBCUs that it is not that they do not want to increase revenue and pursue government contracts. Alternately, I think that government contracts rules and regulations appear to be a giant iceberg to them.
Consequently, instead of steering in the direction that will get them more contracts, they seem to panic and turn in the wrong direction. HBCUs, although rich in their heritage and proud of their achievements, cannot seem to make their mark in the government contract arena.
There have been numerous conferences, initiatives, goals and opportunities, nevertheless a crash of some sort seems to be inevitable. This does not mean that these universities will go bankrupt or forever cease to exist, like many have predicted. Still, they are missing out on opportunities to function in a manner like majority institutions do.
Conferences are great to attend, especially when they are beneficial. However, one must leave the conferences and put all the knowledge they have gotten into action. Yes, government contracting has many layers, and more rules continue to evolve, but mastering the area of expertise for your particular university will, I believe, help “turn the Titanic” in the right direction.
Latonia Jones is the chief executive officer of Phenomenal Management Partners, a consulting firm that specializes in creating and implementing business development strategies for academic institutions that conduct research and development for federal government agencies.
